Oh Christmas Tree...

rocktheshot

Rock The Shot

My new website: www.ottsshots.zenfolio.com
Follow our life story: www.babyott.shutterfly.com

I heart faces....hugs and kisses!

This photo was submitted to the i heart faces photo contest.  Click the image to view it larger, and please do.  It showed up so tiny for some reason!

Hugs & Kisses y'all!

Need some love, one of my favorite shots from 2011.  Or ever for that matter.  The storm was moving in, we JUST made it out of that orchard.  Love the light, the apples, the clothes, and baby B looking off without a care!

Ho Ho Ho, Holiday Card Season!

Ho Ho Ho, Holiday Card Season

Click on the link below to see our card this year!  I heart Shutterfly!

                                                                Click to link to i heart faces

The challenge is beautiful eyes...which my girl has.  How many photos I have of them, sparkling and shining and smiling in all of their girlie glory.  HOWEVER....this one is just my favorite, still beautiful and gorgeous as ever, even when vexed.  MOA to my sweet blue-eyed Zari bird.

I heart faces: From a Distance

Click the link below to view the contest...

The girls, running so happy and free!  Almost ready for school to end.  Almost ready for senior year to start.  Almost ready to begin...www.iheartfaces.com

I want to help.

Grab This!

Ignorance IS bliss.  But I am not ignorant.  And I am hurting.  PLEASE visit the link above and help.

The world is off balance. I wish the energy I/we currently feel in the politics of Wisconsin could catch on and make a positive difference to people in even worse scenarios.  There are so many people, so many countries, suffering.

This has NOTHING to do with politics and everything to do with me being tired. I am tired, I am sad, confused, guilty, shaken, etc. Reading, knowing, being aware, and opening up my eyes and heart is unsettling. I know why people see an image, then turn the page and move on. Ignorance IS bliss. Here goes.

I love perusing blogs. I enjoy the blend of intelligent, entertaining writing and quality photography. It's like an online magazine written by everyday folk like me. I love to be inspired. I love making things and creating.  So...I was on a design Blog last week of a party planner.  She did a baby shower for what looked like $10,000.  Seriously classy and amazingly inspirational.  Loved it.  Knew if I had that money I would never, ever do something like that, but it was still fun to look. (I will always be a rummager at heart.) I wondered if I had the kind of money this mom-to-be had if I would even have a baby shower in the first place...

Then this week, I see another Blog. A Canadian woman searching for donations as small as $5.00 to help strangers, orphans with Downs Syndrome in Eastern Europe, be adopted. There are US families wanting them, but having to wade through massive rolls of red tape and do months of fundraising. FUNDRAISING. Begging for money in order to save babies and children no one wants. They are chained to cribs. They are malnourished, never read to, never played with, never held, never sung to, never taken outside, etc.  No one wants them, yet they have astronomical price tags.  One photo showed 4 toddlers in one crib, no mattress or blanket.  Hair cut short or shaved so they don't get lice or tangles.  I don't know if I will ever forget that photograph.  If they are not adopted by age 5 they go to an institution, a place you would not leave your pet.

It made the entire news story today seem worthless, insignificant. It made me feel so guilty for being about to throw my boy 2 birthday parties. It hurts me to breath just thinking about it. It made me determined to do something. When I became a mom I feel like I became a mom to more souls than these 2.

i heart faces RED

We SO enjoyed a wonderful but brief break from this horrid winter today.  A lovely walk turned into an hour long adventure with the kids, double stroller, sloppy, sloshy park, and camera.  I Lu-HUV me some spring and long for more.  Though this impromptu event could have been a recipe for disaster with no snacks, Bjorn or blanket, miraculously we survived with smiles!  This little neighborhood fellow caught my eye on the home stretch, and I totally caught his as he was wondering why I was shooting his photo! Keep in mind I shot this with one hand while pushing a double stroller "cadillac" with the other!

i heart faces; HEARTS

i love you daddy...Levi's locking eyes with his daddy.  Daddy would have been frustrated by the little energy ball, but melts when he sees his brown eyed boy peek-a-booing him through the paper heart.  See those pudgy fingers?  We are wrapped so tightly around them all.

Our Levi is like a sweet & sour Chinese dish. Still rocking strong an hour past his bedtime.  As tired as we are we can't help but smile at him and play down our excitement in an effort to calm him down.  It takes a lot of willpower to not video or photograph all of these little moments.  We played it out hard in the basement, calmed down, donned PJ's, read books, had the graham crackers and milk, still no eye rubbing on this guy. So we played in the bay window. Against the cool glass of our Wisconsin window it seemed warm surrounded by the pinks and reds of the hand-made paper heart garlands. They were strung last week after a few evenings of painting, cutting, and tying, evenly spaced and lovingly made.

Kids asleep, I'm awaiting the rush following the 6 mint oreos I just devoured! Here is a favorite from a newborn shoot...I love her "Superman" pose and the movement from the "hairy" blanket and her dark hair. Just basically posting to get back in the "swing" of posting. There is so much to keep up on besides life in general: the website, facebook business page, email, etc. I don't know if technology is making things easier or more complicated. One thing is for sure, the free time you may gain from the advances in technology is often wasted on using it!

I Heart Faces

I deleted my old posts. Starting over. A blank canvas for the new year. Starting the challenge with I Heart Faces. The category, Innocent Wonder. Hmm...
It seems every photo of my two babies could convey this idea. I struggle to let them go as they grow. I grasp onto them and realize how fleeting it all is. From the moment the shutter snaps to the moment I download to the screen they have changed already.